Waiting, wading in, and working hard!

Well, the rains came full force this week!  After last year's drought, you will not hear any complaining from us about rain! The rains hopefully let our newly transplanted lettuces,broccoli, and brussel sprouts get settled into their new home at the farm.

 However, the intense rains sometime prevent us from getting spring planting done. First, we have a small creek crossing the road to the farm and  it becomes a full-blown river after a lot of rain! We've decided that if our car can't cross it, that is when we WADE IN! Walking through a small river and in the mud is a great work-out. Thank goodness for rain boots!


Secondly, we have to be very careful when the ground is so saturated. We spent so much time tilling and supplementing our soil with compost to make soft, fluffy raised beds for our veggies to grow in. When it is so wet, we sometimes step on our beds and squish all that soil into hard brick again. So, planting got put on hold for a little while this week.

Tomorrow, the sun will be out full force and we are excited to work hard to get more veggies in the ground.WE have a few more cabbages, spinaches, broccoli, and other veggies to plant tomorrow.

What is green, red, and pink all over? --- Our baby plants at the farm!

We had a truck bed full of vegetable transplants at the beginning of the weekend and now we have most of our early spring vegetables in the ground! We are so excited to let these plants stretch their roots and grow.  We worked hard all weekend and wrapped all of our vegetables in row cover at the end of the weekend to protect from bugs. Our hands are stained with dirt and we are really worn out! Time to go catch some zzz's.

Baby lettuce

Damian planting lettuces

Watering the plants

Row Cover

At the end of the day, we have hands stained with dirt and love it!.

Burning and breaking ground at the farm!

It has been pretty muddy and cold the past couple of weeks, but we were finally able to break ground at the farm. Since we took last fall off of farming, there were many weeds that took over while we were gone. We have found that one of the best ways to get rid of weeds is by converting them to carbon. We started by burning the old weeds up with Damian's favorite tool - the propane-fed roofing torch. After a few more days of no rain, we were able to get the tiller in the ground and loosen up the soil. We can't wait to get some of those transplants in the ground soon and start providing our new 2013 CSA members with fresh veggies!

Still smiling on soggy, cold days

Burning up the weeds

Damian tilling up the ground

Beautiful soft soil

Kale Salad

We love kale and think it is one of the most beautiful plants we have grown on our farm. Kale tastes great when cooked in soups, rice dishes, or baked into kale chips. However, our biggest complaint is that it is bitter when it is in a raw salad. The trick is massaging chopped kale leaves with a combination of lemon juice, salt, and oil. That combination cuts the bitterness and makes the leaves soften. Here is a recipe for kale salad that we thought we would share.

 

"MASSAGED" KALE SALAD

1 bunch kale (black kale is especially good), stalks removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced
1 lemon, juiced
3 tbls extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
Kosher salt
2 teaspoons honey
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup of dried fruit

Small handful of sunflower seeds, about 2 rounded tablespoons

Small handful of shredded carrots

Sliced sweet pepper

1 tablespoons feta cheese

Directions

In large serving bowl, add the kale, half of lemon juice, a drizzle of oil and a little kosher salt. Massage until the kale starts to soften and wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside while you make the dressing.

In a small bowl, whisk remaining lemon juice with the honey and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Stream in the 3tbls of oil while whisking until a dressing forms, and you like how it tastes.

Pour the dressing over the kale, and add the dried fruit and sunflower seeds. Toss and serve.

Easter was a terrific day for planting tubers

A potato with many sprouts

 Easter morning was full of sunshine and the soil was slightly muddy but workable. We decided to take the morning to plant potatoes. We planted over 100 potatoes in just a few hours. Each "seed" potato is supposed to produce about 5-8 potatoes in about 90-120 days, so we are hopefully going to have 500+ potatoes. The process of growing potatoes is different than most plants. As the plant sends up its taproots, we will mound the dirt up higher and higher around each plant. In each of those mounds, that's where the potato will grow.

Damian putting 3" of soil on top of the planted potatoes

Vietnamese pho soup with lots of veggies

One of our favorite types of food is Vietnamese food. It's light; it's fresh and usually has a lot of vegetables. The other night we made Vietnamese soup with lots of vegetables. It turned out great. We wanted to share the recipe with you. Don't be scared off by all the ingredients; it really can be cooked rather quickly. Also, it can be adapted for vegetarians easily.

1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1 teaspoon of ground chili paste
1 teaspoon of red chile sauce
1 tablespoon of chopped dried cilantro  1 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoons of olive oil
5 cups of low sodium chicken stock
1/3 pound of medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
4oz of rice vermicelli noodles
2 + cups of assorted vegetables (pac choi, radish, carrot, mushroom, tomato, onion)
1 tablespoon of lemongrass
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
2 tablespoons of  lemon juice
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
Fresh cilantro & basil for garnish

Heat oil on medium in a soup pot and add spice mixture to the pot until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add chicken stock and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add lemongrass, ginger, lemon juice, fish sauce, & brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Add vermicelli noodles. 4 minutes later add vegetables. Boil for 4 more minutes and add shrimp. Take off heat and add garnish. Enjoy!

1500+ Transplants and Growing

While the cold rain and sleet mixture was happening outside today, we planted more cabbages, herbs, and lettuces indoors. After adding it all up, we calculated that we currently have about 1500+ plants growing indoors under lights. We are officially maxed out of space under our lights. We are ready to get these plants in the ground at the farm and under the sun, but we have to wait for the risk of frost to decrease. In St. Louis, the last frost date is around April 11th-20th. It can't come soon enough!

We are also excited to announce that we officially have several CSA members already signed up for our 2013 season. It feels good to be adding a CSA this year and watching our farm business grow. We look forward to sharing the harvest with our CSA members and building a community of people who love fresh, organic veggies!  We have more CSA memberships available, so pass on the word to friends and neighbors.